Monday, April 30, 2012

Whole Foods Bike Rack Fail

I posted a couple of weeks ago about the overflowing bike racks at Whole Foods (and everywhere around Cambridge).
I stopped by after my training on Sunday, and the good news is that after a year of requests, there was another rack installed!

The bad news is that it's a crummy wheelbender type that's totally useless for most riders. The mixed news was that people were so desperate for bike parking that they were locking just their front wheels- risking not only theft but a taco'ed wheel if the bike fell over.

Note that the rack is too close to existing racks- There's no way to get into the empty spots in the middle, even if you could manage to lock your bike there. The person who ordered and installed this rack had no idea how to actually park a bike.

Minerva and another bike locked to a pole because we couldn't fit in any other spots. I could easily carry $100 of groceries in those big panniers.

Newsflash for Whole Foods: Biking for urban transportation is a real trend, not just greenwashing!
People who bike to the store (your customers) on a regular basis tend to have bikes with fenders and racks and baskets for carrying all the groceries that they want to buy at your store.

This bike is set up to carry a serious load of groceries. The owner was complaining to me while she locked up about how lame the new parking is.

The racks you put in need to accommodate those kinds of bicycles if you want these kinds of people to come to your store. If it's not enough to you that I am arriving in an environmentally friendly way, consider that I have $50 a week that I'm not spending on gas, that instead I could spend on grass fed beef, locally grown kale and compostable trash bags. You claim to have a larger mission of sustainability, yet you provide plenty of car parking, while providing substandard facilities for truly sustainable transportation. Transportation cyclists are your target audience. By shortchanging us, you risk losing us as customers, and make your mission seem hollow.

I've written to Whole Foods asking if they have a national bike rack policy. If they respond, I'll be happy to let you know what they say.

21 comments:

That's pretty grim. Bike parking at the Trader Joe's, just around the corner from there, isn't much better, as they, too, have the squiggly line type of bike racks, which can be hard on fenders, and which are often nearly full. I much prefer Sheffield Stands, or staple type racks, which are starting to show up at more places around the city.

Grrrr!!!This seriously bugs me!We have information for property owners on the City website!!!http://www2.cambridgema.gov/cdd/et/bike/bike_pkng_brochure.pdf

It's a simple brochure that gives proper dimensions and shows proper racks to use. Come on!!!We are also updating zoning information and specific requirements so they are clearer in regards to bike parking but that is mainly for new development. The city needs to do a better job at outreach in regards to parking for bicycles on private property.

In the meantime please feel free to use that brochure and distribute with any complaint you make(although the link may change as we transition to a new website soon) You can also come by 344 Broadway and pickup hard copies.

To clarify, is this the Wholefoods along River St?

JohnCitySmart Outreach CoordinatorCambridge Community Development Department

John, I actually sent them a link to that brochure. My hope is that they would set up a national policy similar to that, with a ratio of bike raking to car parking, and standards for racks and installation to prevent this kind of debacle.

Excellent observations as always... when ever I bike to this particular Whole Foods, I never park my bike in the racks, but rather to the poles which aren't marked with the "do not lock bike to pole" signs. I must say, though, that the car parking in this location is also atrocious.

That's funny, there are almost always tons of open car spots in the garage part. Admittedly I don't drive there much, but the only time I've ever not been able to park a car there was on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

Also, if you go early in the morning, esp. on the weekend, the gates to the garage may be down and the racks unavailable. But as bad as this is, it is more than most markets in the area provide. I regularly ride out to Russo's in Watertown, which has one awful little rack that I'd guess is used more by employees than customers.

yes, that Russo's rack is AWFUL (and the connection between the bike path and the store is kind of hairy). I guess my argument is that Whole Foods corporate branding claims to aspire to a higher standard of sustainability, and that part of that should be having a policy to make bicycling a safe and convenient option for people to come shop at their stores.

inadequate racks at my local WFs (philly) as well. a few on the sidewalk on the side of the building (an easy spot to get a bike stolen). people end up locking their bikes along the railings of the accessible ramp and stairs. the whole store is a mess-- too small, not oriented to the street, quasi-suburban-- and now they want to add more surface parking and are threatening the neighborhood with leaving if they don't get it!

The Whole Foods bicycle racks in Palo Alto are also...no good, primarily due to being overloaded but also at odds with the pedestrian traffic since parking your bicycle equates to narrowing the sidewalk.

This is fascinating; WH and TJ are looking seriously behind the curve. You'd expect better, in both cases.

I'm an older rider and use a six-speed trike (but ride 20-30 miles routes regularly), and where I live (suburban, outside of Philadelphia), I've got bike racks all to myself. On the plus side, I guess that means we've got enough of them.

"Bike culture" here means road bikes & jerseys, not real-life food gathering. It's amazing to see this pile-up, even though there's no way I could ever lock my trike to these racks, under these circumstances. My trike is almost always the only cycle in the rack at our wonderful regional grocery stores, which is really kind of sad.

Here in Arlington (VA), our bike group BikeArlington did a review of some local grocery stores and found mixed results. Here's their review: http://www.bikearlington.com/pages/biking-in-arlington/bike-parking/bike-parking-at-arlington-grocery-stores/ using standards set by the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals. You might know of the group already, but I thought you might be interested in the BikeArlington report. Please let us know if Whole Foods responds.

Nice bumping into you and your DL-1 (figuratively - but almost literally, due to my Superbe's wet brakes) near South Station tonight.

You would think that WF would be at the forefront of bike parking; I've seen their extremely limited parking. And the rack that you cannot even fit a wheel UNDER - pathetic! They're the same design that were used in the 60's at schools when it must have been thought that a bike would simply be nudged in by the front wheel and locking was unimportant, or locking the front wheel would be considered locking the bike.

At 75 State garage in Boston there is one custom built long rack quite high that let's you tuck front wheel under and fit a lock through a thin post, front wheel and downtube that works pretty well.

Nice to meet you too! I love that there are so many great Vintage Raleighs around and being used and loved in Boston. I'm trying to plot a get-together with a couple of other people who each own multiple DL-1's in the next week, and I don't imagine you could do that in many other parts of the country!Hope to see you around- If you work at 75 State, I'm surprised we don't see each other more often, as I work on Broad.